I have now had 4 sandisk SD cards (128-no longer have, 256, 2 512s) and one lexar (256-no longer have), and I have yet to experience problems with the sandisk cards (or the lexar for that matter). I have used the cards for dual booting on my 5500, have written and re-written many times, and have not had problems. With the latest mmcsd.o module and the asyncio kernel provided by Derekp, I'm getting some very good (for my use) speeds in reading/writing. Using home-on-sd, I can rarely notice that I'm working off of SD (again, depending on what I'm doing).

From memory, there was a potential bad batch of sandisk sd cards about 1 year ago or more, leading many to doubt them. However, here's a review from pdabuyersguide.com:

SanDisk is one of the big names in the storage card arena. Heck, they invented the CompactFlash card in 1994, and worked jointly with Matsushita (known mostly by the name Panasonic in this country) and Toshiba to develop the SD memory card. We've been using their CF cards for years and the SD cards have worked perfectly for us in a Palm m130, i705, Casio E-200 and iPAQ 3835. We've tested their 32 meg and 128 meg cards. Transfer speeds are excellent, and we haven't experienced MediaPlayer skips and stutters on the iPAQ 3800 series (that iPAQ has some speed issues with SD cards because of the way Compaq implemented SD). SanDisk is the OEM manufacturer of Compaq SD cards. Buying hint: Compaq marks up the price of their cards, buy SanDisk instead! The cards come with a protective case. "

You will find faster cards in the market more and more (AFAIK, the question remains what speed improvements each zaurus model can take advantage of), but I would seriously doubt if the cards are flawed based on the time and effort that sandisk has spent in the market and my personal experience.

I have now had 4 sandisk SD cards (128-no longer have, 256, 2 512s) and one lexar (256-no longer have), and I have yet to experience problems with the sandisk cards (or the lexar for that matter). I have used the cards for dual booting on my 5500, have written and re-written many times, and have not had problems. With the latest mmcsd.o module and the asyncio kernel provided by Derekp, I'm getting some very good (for my use) speeds in reading/writing. Using home-on-sd, I can rarely notice that I'm working off of SD (again, depending on what I'm doing).

From memory, there was a potential bad batch of sandisk sd cards about 1 year ago or more, leading many to doubt them. However, here's a review from pdabuyersguide.com:

SanDisk is one of the big names in the storage card arena. Heck, they invented the CompactFlash card in 1994, and worked jointly with Matsushita (known mostly by the name Panasonic in this country) and Toshiba to develop the SD memory card. We've been using their CF cards for years and the SD cards have worked perfectly for us in a Palm m130, i705, Casio E-200 and iPAQ 3835. We've tested their 32 meg and 128 meg cards. Transfer speeds are excellent, and we haven't experienced MediaPlayer skips and stutters on the iPAQ 3800 series (that iPAQ has some speed issues with SD cards because of the way Compaq implemented SD). SanDisk is the OEM manufacturer of Compaq SD cards. Buying hint: Compaq marks up the price of their cards, buy SanDisk instead! The cards come with a protective case. "

You will find faster cards in the market more and more (AFAIK, the question remains what speed improvements each zaurus model can take advantage of), but I would seriously doubt if the cards are flawed based on the time and effort that sandisk has spent in the market and my personal experience.

One thing the review doesn't take into account, is that there is tremendous variation in quality, and reliability depending on the factory where the cards are produced. The fab in Japan seems to have fewer problems, the ones in Singapore, China, and Taiwan seem to have more major issues.

I bought a Lexar and a Sandisk in the last month; both were made in China, and both had severe problems after formatting.

Yes - the two that I have with me are a sandisk 256 and a 512, both made in China. On the back of the 256, it says AR0210NC CHINA; on the 512, AX0310MU CHINA. Just thought I'd add that in case it's significant.

The 512 was my home-on-sd card (formatted ext2) for about 2 months of relatively flawless work. I just switched to a 256 for my 5500 home-on-sd (formatted ext2) in anticipation of the arrival of my c760, and it is working fine as well. I have played music on it, copy tons of files back and forth, etc.

Perhaps either the manufacture location isn't the right determinate or perhaps I got two lucky batches from China. I bought my 512 back in January and the 256 two weeks ago from Buy.com. I also have a newer 512 MB from Buy.com (not with me) that I've only used in FAT format on a different device.

Are you saying that I'm putting jobs overseas? I guess I am, but perhaps I'll more strongly consider lexar as a result next time

On the contrary (and contrary to popular belief), China is running a large trade deficit this year as well and their increased purchasing has been the biggest factor in lifting up Japan's economy. This will eventually help us... I never was much of a protectionist, I guess. But hey, nothing wrong with patriotic purchasing